"Paper, Scissors, Death: A Scrapbooking Mystery" is the first book in the Kiki Lowenstein Scrapbooking Mystery Series. Kiki Lowenstein, the main character is a widow and single mother who finds herself the prime suspect in a murder investigation. You can read our previous post on this book here.

Reader to Reader Reviews said, “Joanna Campbell Slan proves herself to be a top-notch mystery author with this very entertaining and intriguing debut. The core characters are introduced, fleshed out, and propel the events smoothly. Kiki and her ensemble are people you want to hand out with because they are interesting, intelligent and have a great sense of humor…When making out that Christmas book-lover’s cozy list, put Paper, Scissors, Death at the top.”

Black Raven Press said, “I like so much about Paper, Scissors, Death it’s tough to know where to begin—but here goes: the writing, the storytelling, the characters.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said, “…Slan has a nice touch with her characters, especially the women characters, even the nasty ones.”

Fresh Fiction said, “The first book in the Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft mysteries, Paper, Scissors, Death is an engaging cozy filled with scrapbooking tips. Readers will cheer seeing Kiki rebuild her life—and grow a backbone—after her husband’s death and her financial problems. Ms. Slan’s debut mystery has a bit of a cliffhanger at the end, sure to keep readers coming back for the next book.”

Giveaway Details:

For your chance to win one of four of Joanna’s new books, please comment to this post. Please tell us, "Why is scrapbooking so important to YOU?" We will leave comments open until Tuesday, Nov 25th at midnight EST. Four winners will be randomly chosen and announced on Wednesday, Nov 26th!

Why is scrapbooking so important to ME? Not only is a way for me to express myself and my love for my family, it is also a way to tell the story of our lives. Something a regular photo album can not do. I love the creativity and challenge to scrap the moments of our lives, especially as my son’s grew into teenages and now adults. I started out making their books for them now that they are 24 and 17 and I don’t want to give my books up.

What a great giveaway, I have heard such good things about these books! Scrapbooking is very important to me for many reasons – I love that I am recording my memories for someone to look at later. I also really enjoy the friendships I have made and love the creative outlet that it allows. Sometimes people just need a break and scrapbooking gives me this break and time to just dive into a hobby I love and have fun! Pick me! (lol!)…the 25th is my birthday!

When I became disabled and housebound, I thought my life was over. Thankfully I found scrapbooking, and I believe it has saved my life! I have learned to touch my creative side and to focus on what is inside of me instead of the disabled outside. Both of my mom’s parents were orphans, so there is not much recorded history in my family. I am now the person that will document our family for future generations. I have also met so many wonderful, kind, inspirational people through scrapping and, particularly, online resources. I thank God every day for my special hobby!

Scrapbooking is important for me because I’d love to leave something to my grandchildren so they could know me better, even when I’m not anymore here. I want them to have a strong family root and never stray away from the right path. I believe it all begins in a close-knit family where faith, love & care are the foundation. And scrapbooking is my medium to tell them my stories.

This is my kind of giveaway!! Woo hoo. Scrapping is important to me because photos capture moments of my life that I don’t want to forget. but it’s hard to remember then when they’re in a shoe box, shoved under the bed. Scrapping allows me to revisit great memories anytime I want to.

Scrapping is important to me as a way to help my children remember events and other activities in our lives. They were older – middle school – when this phenomenon started so I don’t have as many pages from when they were young. BUt, I do hope they will cherish what I have done.

I imagine everyone’s answers will be pretty similiar…to preserve moments of time for our children. I started out with genealogy and the scrapping just goes so well with that. I am fortunate enough to have quite a few older photos that I enjoy scrapping so my grand-daughters can see their ancestors.

Scrapbooking is a way to fulfull my need to create…..but more than that it is a way for me to make others happy! I love making little books and giving them away. Most of my endeavors are not meant to be permanent – they are meant to be enjoyed!

Scrapbooking is my way of saying “I was here!”
I enjoy the creative outlet — I love looking at my vacation albums and re-living those and other memories in way that is so mucher richer than just thumbing through a stack of photos.

Scrapbooking provides me with a creative outlet with one added benefit: I am being productive at the same time. My children and their children will be able to get to know what our lives are like. These time capsules are and will be invaluable to my family. Scrapbooking feeds my soul, grounds me spiritually by reminding me to live for today and to enjoy the moment.

i scrapbook ” People, Places and Things” and in doing so I hope to leave a valuable legacy to teach the appreciation of every day things and the importance of even the little things are important and special too! i try to live life so that what happens today will be tomorrows precious memory!

I want my pictures to speak, by scrapping I get an chance to not only make beautiful peices but I also get to leave behind the story through my journaling.I think it is important not only to see the pretty picture but to know the story behind it!Memories are precious and scrapbooking is a very beautiful way to capture them and tell the story!It is very important to me and my family!

Scrapbooking is important to me for SO many reasons!! It allows me a creative outlet that I can do at any time of the day or night, it documents our family history for future generations, it fits in with my schedule and abilities (since becoming disabled 4 years ago), it fosters special ‘you and me’ time with my daughter (she’s 11), it brings enjoyment to the people who see my creations, and many, many other reasons! And last, but by no means least, it’s fun!!

scrapbooking is a salvation, a comfort, my room is my “second” home (LOL) – it cheers me up – it makes me happy – I LOVE IT!!!!!!!
i guess you could call it family!!!!
i also teach scrapbooking classes and the challenges involved in that let my artistic juices flow………. i am very grateful that i can do all that i can when it comes to scrapbooking. i just with they would call it “artbooking” so we all could get a little more respect!!!!!! LOL!!!!!

scrapbooking is a salvation, a comfort, my room is my “second” home (LOL) – it cheers me up – it makes me happy – I LOVE IT!!!!!!!
i guess you could call it family!!!!
i also teach scrapbooking classes and the challenges involved in that let my artistic juices flow………. i am very grateful that i can do all that i can when it comes to scrapbooking. i just wish they would call it “artbooking” so we all could get a little more respect!!!!!! LOL!!!!!

I scrapbook to release my creative side, to keep me sane, it keeps me in touch with friends and I have gathered more friends, which makes life so much sweeter, it encourages my 7 year old daughter to expand her art, it is the most wonderful hobby, I recommend it to everyone and anyone.

I discovered scrapbooking when I was 60+ years old. I am not artistic in any way but from somewhere has come a latent talent. I am one of those people who has kept ever little detail of both mine and my childrens’ lives. I have my first birthday cards and so many memories that I want to get documented and scrapbooking is the perfect media for this.

Scrapbooking is important to me because I want our story told….not just take pictures and then forget all of the things that went along with each picture. My families story will be told for other generations to read. And there is nothing like the fun of getting to create a page with all of the wonderful products out there!

Scrapbooking allows me to experiment with camera and materials and enjoy special memories far more than if not scrapped..my daughters have also taken it up and nearly every photo of my 9yo has to printed for her to scrap.

Scrapbooking is important to me to capture the memories and keep records of them.
Having seen two mothers from our school pass away I think it is important to record even just the simple things that we take for granted.
I would love a chance to win one of these goodies.
Thanks for the chance.

I love handling the paper and elements, feeling as well as seeing everything in my mind. Scrapbooking is something that relieves the stresses of my less-than-perfect day. As I move the photos and elements and additional scraps around the main canvas, I remember the moments that led to that picture. Suddenly I don’t think about my job, eating something I shouldn’t be eating or anything else. I’m too busy to notice anything but what’s going on before me.

scrapbooking is most important to me as i do not have much from my past but a hand full of random photographs and a few class awards. with parents that don’t have great mental memories…i know of only few highlights from my youth. i often feel cheated and vow to myself continously that i will not let this happen to my children.

It is so important because it is a way for me to capture time on a page, an album or other decor album. I love looking back and seeing things I have forgotten or how things have changed. Scrapbooking is part of my life.
Karen G

Scrapbooking is so important to me because its my release. Its my way to remember everything that I have done in my life and when I scrapbook i truely enjoy it. And being able to show my friends and family my scrapbooks are good braging rights

Hello.. thanks for the opportunity to win this giveaway… Prize description sounds like a great book! I love Scrapbooking because since I’ve been involved with it, I’ve become more creative and have found a new talent; I’ve felt less stressed; I’ve participated in more activities with friends and have been able to treasure more memories.

Scrapbooking is my empty-nest therapy … I started really getting into it to create a scrapbook for my daughter’s high school graduation, then was totally hooked! It’s been a wonderful journey, seeing others’ creations & making my own – and I’ve met many awesome people both online & in person through my addiction.

What an awesome giveaway – fantastic! I love to read, which is what I do in bed at night because you can’t scrapbook there! I scrapbook for several reasons – to preserve our lives for those who come after us, to remind myself of some of the silly/fun/amazing/milestone things we have done in our lives, but mostly for ME. As a fulltime working wife and mother, scrapbooking is MY time out, MY creative outlet, MY relaxation. Hubby reckons I only do it as an excuse to sniff glue and make a mess, but it’s not true, I tell you! Pick me, pick me, pick me please!

you pose this question after a full 14 hours of shopping and cropping with my favorite Gotta Scrap girlfriends…you know you only have to attend to be a friend…! scrapping and socializing can be synonomous when you are at a crop. scrapping opens up my world and takes me to new places both mentally and physically. when i arrive at a new place i already have something in common with everyone else there.i am accepted and part of a family. i am afterall an empty nester and scrapping adds to my family.scrapbooking is important to me because it allows me to persue my creativity in many forms with so many new friends. it has become my passion. it has renewed me.i’ve always had a creative side but it has been reborn. thank you for the chance to express this and to be entered into the giveaway. ms.cheryl

Scrapbooking is important to me because it’s a great stress reliever and I’ve made so many friends because of my hobby. I’ve also had tons of opportunities to reminisce about the good times in my life.

scrapbooking is important to me because i want to preserve family memories for future generations in a fun & creative way.
Shari
__________________________________________________http://www.ShariSuzuki.typepad.com

Scrapbooking is so much fun and gives me a way to express my creativity but most importantly, I never did anything with all my precious photographs until I started scrapbooking. I guess I somehow knew there must be something better for my photos and my story than a regular ol’ photo album!

I am a photographer and photos are my most treasured possession. I want my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to know who I really was. I also worry if I ever lose my memory, then I can look back and see what a wonderful life I had, even if I can’t remember.

Why is scrapbooking important to me? Well, I think we all have an impact on the environment. I have gone to more of a ‘recycled’ type of scrapping – yes I still have to use adhesives & the acid-free paper, but my embellies are stretching my imagination to look for alternatives to decorate. I use my brain & my creativity to make things for others to enjoy.

I have to scrapbook to let out my creative imagination, and preserve the specail memories for my children and friends. The book series sounds like to much fun, a good mystery and scrapbooking hints too. The perfect book.
Joyce

Scrapbooking is important to me because I don’t want my kids to look at the pictures after I’m gone and say “Who is that”. All the elderly people in my family are gone now and there’s no one to tell me who, what, when or where about the pictures.

I like many crafts but scrapbooking is by far my favorite. There are no rights or wrongs in how to do it & you can use so many different supplies & techniques – your imagination is the limit. (and time)

I love telling our story (with or without photos) for my kids and future generations

I love to scrapbook because it combines my passion for photography with my creative side….I’m not an artist, but I am creative, so SB gives me an outlet for my creativity….

It’s also important to me because my creations are a way to give back to my family and friends….

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